


Pieces of a Puzzle

by shopfront



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F/F, Getting Together, Parallel Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-12-23 08:24:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11985975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: When Skye accidentally hops between Earths, Laurel finds a kindred spirit in an unexpected place while they wait to send her home. (Set in season one of SHIELD, and between season 3-4 of Arrow with a handful of Cisco related spoilers for Flash)





	Pieces of a Puzzle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



> Thank you to alchemise for the beta, any remaining mistakes are entirely my own!

“Stop right there!”

In hindsight, the clear female voice ringing out through the night was a relief. At the time it just made Skye jump in surprise, swear, and then almost get her face beaten in.

Or at least, it felt like her being distracted should have gotten her face beaten in, but the two thugs she was facing down paused. Then exchanged nervous glances. Then, just as she was steadying her raised fists and desperately trying to remember all of her very shaky and very recent new recruit training so she wouldn’t get any more hurt than she could avoid, they turned tail and fled. Suddenly, a woman in a tight leather catsuit swooped down from the nearest rooftop.

“Whoa,” Skye said, staring blatantly at the moment for a moment. She was only human and that was a rocking catsuit.

“Are you okay?” the woman asked urgently, turning towards Skye who just gaped as she took in the matching mask and nodded.

The woman waited a beat, and then cocked her head to the side and looked Skye over more closely. “Are you sure? Do you need help getting somewhere?”

“No, no I don’t think so,” Skye said in a daze. “I mean, I have absolutely no idea where I am or how I got here, but I’m fine, I’ll just call for a-“

Skye pulled her S.H.I.E.L.D. issued cellphone out of her pocket as she spoke. But now she stumbled to a halt and stared at the blinking no service alert on the screen of her certified for any place, any terrain, anywhere on the godforsaken planet secret agency cellphone.

“What the…,” she muttered.

“Everything alright?” Catsuit asked.

Skye just banged her phone against her palm and then stared at it some more. “Peachy,” she mumbled.

“Perhaps we need to swing by the emergency room, just in case,” the woman said, reaching out one hand for Skye and the other for her phone.

“Hands off!” Skye said, finally looking up and turning away so that her body was between the grabby hands and her phone. “What’s a nice superhero like you doing trying to steal innocent victim’s phones, anyway? Do you have any idea how bad the press would be if I told someone about this?”

The woman blinked, and then Skye thought she might be glaring but the big hunk of black material stretched across her face was making it kind of hard to tell.

“What’s with the mask, anyway? I mean, don’t get me wrong, that outfit really suits you but nobody wears masks these days. It’s way suspicious looking with all the super powered people running around. You might want to re-think it just a little,” Skye said, still carefully positioning herself to protect her tech. “I have a few friends in the hero business who might be able to help if you need a re-brand. If you want to give me a name and maybe explain to me why my phone isn’t working in your neck of the woods here, I could-“

“I’m the Black Canary,” the woman said slowly, in a very familiar ‘are you some kind of idiot’ tone that Skye objected to. That was _her_ tone. Skye was the misunderstood genius who got to point out the obvious to other people, thank you very much.

“Huh, Black Canary. That’s a new one,” was what she said instead of giving into her outrage. “Explains all the… black. I don’t suppose you could also tell me where I am?”

After some back and forth of questions the woman was starting to look faintly like she wanted to rip off her mask so she could rub away a tension headache, and Skye had been reduced to waving her arms around wildly.

“What do you mean, Star City? Star City, where? That’s not even a place! Plus, it’s a ridiculous name! Next you’ll tell me there’s a Moon City nearby, or a Dazzle Central.”

“It is a place, in-“

“And why the hell isn’t my phone working? This is S.H.I.E.L.D. issue, what the hell did you do to it?”

“I didn’t do anything!“ the woman snapped, sounding increasingly incensed, before stopping suddenly and stepping away with a hand pressed to her ear. “Say again?”

Then she turned to Skye with a dawning look of horror in her eyes.

“What?” Skye asked, feeling distinctly derailed from her tirade. “What is that look for?”

The woman bit her lip, still listening, and then nodded pointlessly at whoever was on the other end.

“When I first arrived you said something about not knowing how you got here, right?” She asked, eventually turning back to an exasperated Skye.

“Right,” she agreed cautiously.

“I don’t suppose there was a bright flash of light, or a weird sucking sensation, or something else odd like that happened just before you found yourself in the alley?”

Skye frowned. “Yeah, I thought I told you that earlier. Big flash of light and then scary people wanting to hurt me, so?”

“Great,” was all the Black Canary said in a low mutter, “this is just great.”

*

“What do you mean, different Earth? Wait, so you’ve dealt with people from parallel universes before?” Skye asked, hurrying to keep up and puffing a little in the process. She wouldn’t have called herself unfit before today, exactly, but then she didn’t spend her nights running around on rooftops either. “Though judging by your complete lack of being bowled over by the idea, I’m guessing we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto…”

“We have a problem,” the Black Canary announced loudly in lieu of a response as she led a still rambling Skye down a set of stairs.

“Whoa,” another young woman said as they reached the bottom. This one was refreshingly not masked this time, Skye noted, though she was also apparently a touch of dramatic judging from her exaggerated facial expressions and the dragging of hands through her short hair. “Strange person in the secret hideout, what the hell?”

“She’s Earth hopping. Do you still have The Flash’s number? I can’t seem to put my hands on it.”

“Uh. No? Also, regardless of supposed origin, there’s still a stranger in the secret hideout! You couldn’t have given me a heads up? I am completely lacking in any, you know,” she said, trailing off and gesturing to her face.

The Black Canary sighed, somehow managed to pinch the bridge of her nose around her mask - and really, would it be too rude if Skye peered a little closer to try and work out how she’d even managed that - and then stripped it right off.

The other woman made a noise like a strangled cat. Skye choked down the urge to snicker.

“Call me Laurel, this is Thea,” Black Canary, now Laurel, said tiredly, before pulling a face at Thea. “What? Weren’t you on comms when Diggle told me we registered a parallel Earth event on that device Cisco left us? Besides, it’s not like I could take her back to my apartment to figure it out alone!”

“I suppose we could ask Felicity,” Thea allowed grudgingly, and then pointed an angry finger at Laurel. “I’m still not happy about this though. We need new rules for the hideout!”

“She did leave instructions on how to reach them in Bali-“

“Wait, no, they’re on vacation. We agreed we’d at least stop bothering her when they’re on vacation.”

“I don’t like it any more than you do, but we need to figure out how to get this girl - hey! Don’t touch that!”

Skye looked up from the keyboard and considered trying for a guilty-innocent thing, but just kind of grinned at them awkwardly instead. “Relax, computers are my thing,” she said, and then spun in the swivel chair and gestured at the screen, “I found your number. Although if this Flash person is another secret identity, I would probably recommend that you don’t save his contact details on such an easily accessible computer… or write Barry next to his superhero name.”

Thea made a frustrated noise. “It’s not normally easily accessible!” she snarled, and then threw another glare at Laurel for good measure.

“Huh,” Laurel said, ignoring Thea completely. “How did you even-“

“It’s in a pretty basic piece of contact management software,” Skye said, swivelling back. “I didn’t recognise the name but it was otherwise fairly easy to find and pull up. Which isn’t good. I mean, if this is a secret base or whatever you probably need to use more secret computer stuff.”

“We really need a new tech support person,” Laurel muttered meaningfully at Thea, and then pulled out a cellphone of her own from Skye wasn’t even sure where while Thea groaned and glared at the ceiling.

Skye just grinned and spun.

*

Several days later Skye was no longer spinning and most definitely no longer grinning. Thea had perked up a little, and Skye had greatly enjoyed another round of the ‘there’s a stranger in our secret base!’ game, complete with extra eye-rolling from Laurel, when Diggle returned.

But what she hadn’t done was gone home. Or, really, gathered any appreciably useful information on how they planned to eventually send her back there either.

In the meantime, she was at least very comfortably installed on Black-Canary-slash-Laurel’s sofa. She had also gotten up to speed with their excellent but sometimes surprisingly odd computer set up, and had located the only passably decent coffee shop within an easy walk of both.

“Well, it’s not S.H.I.E.L.D.,” she’d observed the first time Thea had given in and asked her to help rather than try and threaten her away from the computer again, “but I suppose it’ll have to do.”

“I told you, once they’ve sorted out their little time loop monster thing or whatever, Cisco promised he’d come straight here to help us send you back,” Thea repeated through gritted teeth. “But in the meantime, we’re all way too busy to babysit you. So you might as well make yourself useful.”

Skye just gave her a smarmy grin and shrugged. “Whatever I can do to help,” she said, grin widening when Thea made a frustrated noise and stomped off.

“You could try not provoking her,” Diggle said quietly from Skye’s other side, but when she turned around he was smiling at her.

“But it’s so much fun,” she said, but smiled back when he just chuckled and shook his head. She liked Diggle. She had the sneaking suspicion he was the glue holding things together, and she’d realised since meeting Coulson that she worked better with a calm boss person to bounce off of, anyway. “I suppose, if I have to,” she agreed, lips still quirking as she heaved an exaggerated sigh.

“You have to,” Diggle said pointedly as he walked away.

Despite the banter, Skye reached for the keyboard and the communications headset with relish. The system really was quirky, though none of it looked like the cheap hatchet jobs she was used to, so she was fairly sure it was parallel universe quirky instead of being a bad system.

Whatever the reason, no matter how fast her fingers flew across the keys it still moved faster than even she could keep up, and so did the team. By the time they all rolled back in at the end of the night, she was just as breathless with wonder at what their system could do as they were breathless from running and flying and throwing punches.

Thankfully, at least, the adrenaline lasted until they’d all patched each other up and Laurel had led Skye back home.

“That was a rush,” Skye said meaningfully as they collapsed on the sofa, just barely dodging her discarded pile of pillows and blankets.

“I know,” Laurel said dreamily. “Although you sound surprised, I thought you said you dealt with things a bit like this back home?”

“I mean, yeah,” Skye said, waving her hands in a not very illuminating fashion before giving up and letting them drop tiredly into her lap. “But that’s all… military. I’ve done the under-the-radar-hacker-with-an-agenda thing, and the crime fighting thing, but what you do? It’s a crazy cool mash up of both.”

Laurel laughed and turned on her side to see Skye better, moving them closer together. “So you like it?”

“Yeah,” Skye said, mirroring Laurel’s shift and smiling at her as they settled in properly. “Yeah, I liked it a lot.”

“It’s definitely an adrenaline rush,” Laurel admitted. “I kind of fell into it for other reasons, but there’s nothing quite like it. Knowing you’re helping people, making a real difference, even though it’s just one or two us out there at time….”

“You’re a little piece of a bigger puzzle.”

Laurel looked at her in surprise. “Yeah,” she said softly. “How did you know?”

“Hacker with an agenda,” Skye said wryly, pointing at herself and pulling a face. “I… did a lot of things. But the ones that stuck with me, the ones that really meant anything, they felt like that.”

Laurel nodded, still looking at her, and the movement made Skye realise exactly how close they’d gotten as they’d talked.

They hadn’t turned the lights on when they’d walked in, making do with the street lighting that had lit up much of their activities during the night, and the darkness cast Laurel into soft shadows. But Skye could still make out the fall of Laurel's long hair beside the curve of her cheek, and the shine of her eyes as she looked back at Skye.

“I like the sound of that,” Laurel said, moving closer still. “Tell me more?”

Skye swallowed hard. “Well,” she murmured, struggling to remember what they'd even been talking about before she'd been distracted by Laurel's eyes. But before she could say anything more, Laurel’s lips were brushing against hers, and whatever she was about to say was lost in the sound of her own moan.

*

“You know, it’s really not that different here,” Skye said slowly. “Lots of people running around with cool powers. Some of them helping, some of them hurting. It’s almost a pity to leave just as I’ve found a good groove….”

“It has been fun,” Laurel agreed, stepping closer and ducking her head to look at Skye more directly. “You fit in well here. Eventually.”

Skye laughed, and reached out to tangle her fingers in the hem of Laurel’s sweater. “Once I stopped baiting Thea, you mean.”

“That, too,” Laurel conceded, eyes twinkling.

Skye hesitated. “You might find our side fun, too,” she said eventually.

Laurel cocked her head and stared at Skye for a moment. “You mean…?”

“Yeah,” Skye said, shrugging and looking away. “If you want. I mean. It’s just an idea,” she continued with an awkward grimace, before stuttering to a stop when one delicate finger slipped under her chin and gently forced her to look back up.

“What you told me.... It sounded like things over on your side are a little more formal than they are here,” Laurel said slowly. “I would have thought you bringing a friend along might cause a few problems for you.”

“I know a guy,” Skye smirked.

Laurel raised an eyebrow.

“Look, you’re right, I can’t promise anything. But this call button thing Cisco whipped up for me would work just as well to call you a ride home as it would to call for help with cross-Earth events or whatever,” she said, stuffing her hands in her pockets and shrugging.

“She’s right,” Cisco chimed in, making Laurel sigh and give him a dirty look. “Sorry, shutting up and not eavesdropping now. But she is right.”

“You really want me to go with you?” Laurel asked again, as Skye looked up

“Yeah,” she said slowly. “Yeah, I really would.”

“And you’re sure this thing you made works?” Laurel asked, looking back toward Cisco again.

Cisco nodded furiously. “Absolutely. And if you’re worried, I could probably pop over in like, I dunno, a week? If we haven’t heard from you yet, just to be sure.”

Laurel looked thoughtful and then turned to Thea and Diggle. Diggle already had his hands held up in a gesture of surrender.

“I have no opinion,” he said quickly. “Absolutely no opinion at all. You should do what makes you happy.”

“We’ll be fine,” Thea said, waving a hand. “Don’t you dare worry about us.”

“It’ll just be a week,” Laurel said, looking between them all earnestly before turning back to Skye. “I’m not leaving them in the lurch with no notice. So, just a week.”

Skye finally let a smile blossom freely across her face. “You wouldn’t believe the cool things I could show you in a week.”

“You’d better,” Laurel said, nudging their shoulders together and reaching out to take her by the hand. “It’s a heck of a long trip not to see anything cool. I expect souvenirs, too.”

Cisco rubbed his hands together. “Right, are we ready to get this show on the road?”

Skye and Laurel smiled at each other. “Ready,” they chorused, leaning in for a kiss just as the bright flash of light reached out to envelop them.

**Author's Note:**

> I deliberately left this open ended so people could choose to imagine it as canon compliant with Laurel travelling back home later if they want, but I also think it's highly possibly Skye might convince her to stay leading to a Laurel fix-it scenario for you.


End file.
